A Centralized, Cooperative, or Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) may include a plurality of distributed Remote Radio Units (RUs) (also referred to as “Remote Radio Heads (RRHs)”), which may be connected to a cloud via a transport network, for example, a high-bandwidth and low-latency transport network, e.g., an optical fiber transport network.
The C-RAN may include a plurality of Base Band Units (BBUs) (also referred to as Digital units (DUs). The BBUs may communicate with the RRHs using an interface, for example, a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI), or any other interface.
According to a “localized BBU pool” architecture (also referred to as a “small scale C-RAN” or “localized C-RAN)”), an operator may deploy a plurality of BBU processing pools, e.g., small or medium sized BBU pools, to control the plurality of RRHs, e.g., a moderate number of RRHs. A BBU processing pool may include a plurality of BBUs.
According to the document “SUGGESTIONS ON POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS TO C-RAN BY NGMN ALLIANCE”, the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance, Version 4.0, Jan. 3, 2013, (“the NGMN document”) the small cell C-RAN architecture may be, for example, suitable for operators having a large number of site machine room resources. According to the NGMN document, a small/medium scale C-RAN architecture may be advantageous, for example, since a C-RAN deployment beyond a certain size may have only marginal performance gains.
There is a need for efficient management and/or interworking of BBU pools, e.g., in a localized C-RAN deployment, and/or in any other architecture.